I am writing to the Panorama concerning an incident of a friend of mine whilst on holiday – end of May 2019 going into June 2019.

His name is Ryan Robert Harrison flying into Gibraltar to start his holiday, he went to stay in La Linea with other friends. He and his other friends decided to go to a concert in Albufeira Portugal. Whilst there he had his passport stolen along with some other inconsequential papers.

This was only reported to the Portuguese Police who made an investigation, also they gave him a stamped document to enable him to return to Gibraltar to make his flight home.

Upon his coach trip back into Spain, there was no problem leaving Spain. However going to Gibraltar Customs, he would not be allowed to enter Gibraltar and the Customs Officer told him anyway he would not be allowed to fly into Britain. This has been discussed with the airline concerned, the details were given as following Ryan Robert Harrison passport No. 5R638294 departing on flight No. EZY 1964 departing to Manchester 12 June 2019 whose passport was stolen was given a signed and stamped document to confirm this. Thus it was hoped to allow him to travel home.

The Airline confirmed that given the documentation and his flight ticket they would have allowed him to fly home.

Mr Harrison was back into Spain and Portugal and was also allowed to fly back to Britain.

Now my question about this incident both to the Chief Customs Office and to our Chief Minister:

If this Customs Officer was working to the letter of the law (certainly not with the spirit of it).